The second time I went to Chengdu City, it was in winter.

The Spring Festival is approaching, and under the city wall made of bluestone, there are still as few people coming and going as last year.

Without his father to follow, he was finally able to take a good look at Chengdu City.

The city wall of Chengdu is very different from the only intact Xi'an city wall in later generations, the Chengdu city wall is double-layered, and the two-layer city wall forms a half-moon-shaped urn city.

Different from what many people want to imagine, the city wall of Chengdu can be climbed at will, and there is no army stationed at each city gate, and the city defense army and the like are all stationed in the city.

Unfortunately, now is not the time to appreciate these things ... There are still important things to do in Chengdu.

Looking past from the Qingyuan Gate, facing the most conspicuous building, the Governor's Palace.

[Although the relationship between Xiliang and the Sichuan-Han Railway Company is far less close than that of the Chamber of Commerce, it is the official force after all, and he is the last representative of the Qing government to take back the right of way, so let's visit it a little. 】

Looking at the sun in the sky through his fingers, the corners of Yu Ling's mouth brought a smile that he didn't even notice.

=============

"I've seen the Governor."

Although you can see it from the city gate, it still took nearly half an hour to get there.

Originally, Yu Ling thought that even if it was explained that it was for the railway, Xiliang would not see her so easily, but she didn't expect that in just fifteen minutes, Xiliang called her in.

Now, though, it seems that Xiliang sees himself. I'm a little surprised.

“。。。。”

Although Xiliang has been in officialdom for a long time, he will not show his emotions particularly obviously... But when I saw that the Chongqing group training in front of me was actually a young girl with only her average height, her eyes were still unconsciously round.

"Regarding the railway, Xia Guan is willing to invest one million taels of silver in the Sichuan-Han Railway Company,"

Hearing one million taels, Xiliang, who was drinking tea and was shocked, shrank his pupils and almost squirted out the tea in his mouth.

A million taels is not a small amount for a governor, but for a local military petty officer... Then ...

"However, the lower officials have some ideas about the railway, I wonder if the Governor can help the lower officials introduce Lord Zhan Tianyou, this is a little filial piety money for the lower officials."

Yu Ling handed over the 100,000 taels of silver tickets from Hengxing Qianzhuang and looked at Xiliang who was still sitting with a smile.

Although corruption in the Qing Dynasty was also a serious crime, such a thing as filial piety money did not belong to the category of corruption like political donations from some countries in later generations... Corruption in this era~~~ If you are greedy for public funds, that is corruption.

"What do you want to do on the railroad?"

Xiliang's tone was a little unkind, there were still people who were so blatant and directly bribed in front of him, although he didn't accept the money, but the timing of the money was not right, and it would also make them governor-level officials very faceless.

"Given the distance of the Hanyang Iron Works, Xiaguan believes that Xiaguan's steel plant in Chongqing can afford to produce rails for the railway."

This is one of the main purposes of Yuling this time, as long as the Sichuan-Han Railway buys Yuling's rails, then part of the cost of the steel plant can be borne by the Sichuan-Han Railway Company, and the Sichuan-Han Railway Company can also save a part of the money on the rails, which is beneficial to both parties.

"Do you know Zhan Tianyou's character? He has never been able to tolerate indiscriminate use of materials, and if you have the idea, please go back. ”

Yu Ling took out a bribe at the beginning, which made Xi Liang's first impression of Yu Ling not very good, naturally, when Xi Liang heard the problem of the rail, the first thing he thought of was that Yu Ling wanted to make a profit with inferior materials.

Of course, there is also the inertia of thinking, that is, it is impossible for a private steel plant to be as good as the Hanyang Iron Works, which uses foreign technology, but this time, he was wrong.

"What about the quality of the rails, Lord Zhan can go to the factory to personally accept the rails, and the lower officials can guarantee that the rails produced by the lower officials will not be worse than those in Britain and Germany, and due to the cost of transportation, our price will be a little lower than that of the Hanyang Iron Works."

The smile on Yu Ling's face became obvious, which was deliberately made by Yu Ling, in order to make himself appear more believable.

Xiliang was puzzled when he heard this, Yu Ling's words were simply incredible, in addition to the Hanyang Iron Works in China, there are also steel mills that can produce steel rails that are no worse than those of Britain and Germany? But Yu Ling made it clear that he could let Zhan Tianyou go to the factory to inspect the goods, even if Zhan Tianyou is not in Sichuan now, but if he needs to inspect the goods, he will definitely inspect the goods in person. It's not like you're trying to pass off a foreign rail as an inspection.

"Of course, if it's just like this, Xia Guan will only have to go to Lord Zhan, and there is another thing to visit the Governor, Xia Guan hopes to change some small details of the Chengdu-Chongqing line."

After talking to Xiliang for so long about the benefits to their side, Yu Ling finally said the most important purpose of his trip.

If the route of the Sichuan-Chongqing line can be modified, then Yuling will not need to prepare funds for the construction of the Chongqing-Guangzhou line, which is very beneficial to many of Yuling's plans.

"This is impossible, the current plan is discussed and approved by the Chamber of Commerce and the government, and it is absolutely impossible to change it at will."

Hearing that it was about the route, Xiliang refused without thinking about it, this is a project that the imperial court attaches great importance to, and the imperial court also wants to use the construction of this railway to fight against Britain and France and other countries that have infiltrated in the southwest region in Sichuan.

If you change the route at will, it will be easy to find out what you want.

"It's just a change in the distance of more than 160 miles and a change in the order of construction, Xia Guan heard that the Sichuan-Han Railway needs a total of 50 million taels of silver to be built, if Xia Guan can solve this problem, I believe that the Governor and the people of the Chamber of Commerce will not object to this matter."

This is the death hole of Xiliang, and it is also the death hole of the entire Qing Dynasty government.

Now the Qing Dynasty government, which has finally realized the problem, is preparing to show its strength, constitutional monarchy, army reform, financial reform, and state-level projects are all being prepared, but only preparations, except for the establishment of the Beiyang Army, there are not many other actions.

One of the most important reasons for this is the lack of finance.

If it weren't for the financial shortage, it would have been normal for the Xinhai Revolution to become another Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

"You..."

Xiliang looked at Yu Ling and couldn't speak, this is not a threat, this is a fact. Now the initiative is completely in the hands of this little girl in front of her.

"Your Excellency the Governor, there is a gap of 3 million in the 17 million taels of funds, what exactly is it going to do, your Excellency should not know it, in this regard, Xia Guan just wants to remind you that the stock market is risky, and people's hearts are separated from their stomachs."